A Blog on Coordinating Suits, Shirts, Ties, and Squares.

I am a hypocrite. OK, I admit it. For the purpose of this post I am claiming that this jacket is a Winter color and texture. Is it? It certainly can pass for one. So why am I a hypocrite? because a few seasons back a customer loved it for Spring/SUMMER and I went against my grain and told her it was acceptable for Summer. Acceptable for Summer? yeah, probably. better for Winter? Most certainly.

Shown here is the Hickey Freeman Hist First Blazer, with a Brown striped shirt from HF His First and an assortment of ties. Some from the new collections and some older. The theme of the ties were dark and browns /coffee colors. The square is a fiery rust square from the vintage collection.

Your thoughts?

First off the Burgundy rust from the new collection.

I like the way the square here shows more black than anything. This works against the grey in the jacket for great contrast. The rust, gold and mustard also work nicely off the brown in the jacket. Again, this is great proof that Brown and Grey work well together. A pox on the house of those naysayers!

Swapped the tie for another brown based tie.

Some may feel that the above tie is too much in pattern so I swapped that for this brown solid. Perhaps a little too shiny.

Considering that it was an historic day on wall street what with a 1K drop and the subsequent recovery to “only” 350 points down, I would be remiss in not doing a post about it today.

I believe that I have said before that black and red are closely related. Its why black and red go so well together.

Here is an ensemble with red tie against the blue shirt as well as the grey sportscoat. The one question you might have on the jacket is the beige colored check. It doesnt bother me. I used the linen cream square to tone it all down. Light blue shirts work almost anywhere.

Here I swapped it for a Black taffeta tie with raw silk tone on tone stripe. The black against the gray coat work perfectly with grey essentially being a shade of black. The raw silk stripe makes it better matched texture wise with the textured sports coat. Cream linen square again makes it all classic.

Here’s to wishing you all have a great Friday and if you are in the market remember that age old adage.

Carrying forward yesterday’s results but in the reverse, here you have a brown tie against a yellow shirt that garners more attention than the orange against the blue pictured directly below due to the fact that the orange is a softer orange and the satin brown is strong. (yes, I know the jackets are different but the contrast is created mainly with the shirts with the sports coats complementing.)

Spring might not be in the air where you and I live, eat, breath and sleep but it must be really hot in the warehouses of my kids boutique suppliers because Spring merchandise is arriving daily and has been for about a month now.

The rust in the tie as well as the beige flower working with the cream shirt pulls out that beige windowpane in the jacket. The silver and yellow in the square complements it all. Here you get a better detail of the square:

Unabashed Plug here: I have gone to some serious discounts on the cashmeres and other items on the FIH Site. Cashmere coats, under 700 dollars, Scarves between 25-35% off. Same with Cashmere Sweaters. Check it out!

Like this:

Ties are accessories or at least should be. What I mean by that is that they should not be the focal point of the suit but they should compliment it. Add flavor to the entree not be the overpowering taste.

With that concept in mind I will add my two cents to a photo that someone sent me today, asking me what my thoughts on it were.

Here is the photo:

The suit is magnificient, the shirt is nice. I like the subtle touch the square offers up as well, complimenting the suit while not detracting. I think that in this case the tie which appears to be an Hermes type orange overpowers the rest of the ensemble, relegating it to the background.

And whats interesting to me is that had the tie been used in a DARKER suit then it could have been pulled off as the contrast of the suit would have pulled its own weight.

Below I show two suits with the same rust/raspberry paisley tie. In the grey while its OK, it becomes the focal point of the ensemble and the rest fades into the background. In the black it takes a black suit and makes it pop.

PS: I don’t care for this square here and should have gone with a simple cream linen one. I will Re-pic tomorrow.

Comments while they are as of yet uncommented by me are always welcome (heck, comments are always welcome always 🙂

EDIT: OK, here is what I wanted with this first post. What this does is show some of the various colors that Blue and orange can come in. As Steve in the comments mentions the Blue and Red (they are orange) is too contrasty. Well…that really depends on what its with and thats why I didnt show it with the grey suit that I photographed (a blue Hickey Freeman His first for the kids/young men. Next week I will bring that tie in with a Navy suit and you will see how nice it can be. For the same reason I wouldnt use the third from the right. Too Blue.

Not all Blue and Oranges are created equal!

This first tie works well in the color scheme. Not too bold, Not too contrasty yet with some life. whats nice about this particular tie is that its woven with two colors. So depending on which way you turn it you get the different color dominating . Turn it one way you get morer blue, the other you get strong (but not too strong) orange. The square is the classic Linen blue giving a shock of solid color in an otherwise almost too peaceful ensemble. Works well with the ensemble in a proffessional setting I think.

Of the sets, this is my least favorite. Its not that the tie isnt nice. It is. I just think that it might be a little too “washed out” in the look and not offering enough pop. I do however like the concept of bringing in the polkadot pattern into the ensemble and iot works well in a square later on.

here you get a houndstooth Orange and Blue stripe and again with the same square. This tie gives more pop without being over the top. Its orange is stronger as well as the other colors it has. (Blues as well).

So you know that I like orange and blue already (or was I just thinking about it and never got a chance to post?) , but here is a soft orangish peach that works into a blue gingham shirt with a pin stripe suit. I took the shots and while i do like the light tie against the navy suit I think that the square might be too close in color to the tie.

First is with a Navy pin stripe suit and second with a Grey stripe (I need to retake all my suits, oh…the time…).